| “Had he not resembled/My father as he slept, I had done ‘t.” (Who is “he”?) | Lady Macbeth; “he” is King Duncan |
| “A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then!” (Why is this statement ironic?) | Lady Macbeth; making it sound like killing Macbeth was not a big deal |
| “Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst.” (what does this statement reveal?) | Macbeth; Macbeth wants to believe that Duncan is still alive and regrets his death. |
| “The sleeping and the dead/Are but as pictures.” (what literary device is this?) | Lady Macbeth; similie |
| “Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of Hell-gate, he should have old turning the key.” (what is the speaker pretending to be?) | Porter; gate keeper of hell |
| “To show an unfelt sorrow is an office/Which the false man does easy. I’ll to England.” (What does this statement mean?) | Malcolm; someone is upset about King Duncan who really is faking to be upset |
| “There’s daggers in men’s smiles. The nea’er in blood, / The nearer bloody.” | Donalbain; closer to blood, closer to being dead or murdered |
| “Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast, — | Macbeth to Lady Macbeth; personification |
| Is this a dagger which I see before me,The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.Art thou not, fatal vision, sensibleTo feeling as to sight? or art thou butA dagger of the mind, a false creation,Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? | Macbeth; soliloquy; hallucination; anxious about murdering Duncan |
| Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this bloodClean from my hand? No, this my hand will ratherThe multitudinous seas in incarnadine,Making the green one red. | Macbeth; soliloquy; projection of Macbeth’s guilt |
| The night has been unruly: where we lay,Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of death,And prophesying with accents terribleOf dire combustion and confused eventsNew hatch’d to the woeful time: the obscure birdClamour’d the livelong night: some say, the earthWas feverous and did shake. | Lennox to Macbeth; theme: weather, moral decay |
| Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!Most sacrilegious murder hath broke opeThe Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thenceThe life o’ the building! | Macduff to Macbeth and Lennox; metaphor; comparing Duncan to a God figure; Divine Right of Kings |
| Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:The expedition my violent loveOutrun the pauser, reason | Macbeth to Macduff, Malcolm, Donalbain; dramatic/situational irony: Macbeth is acting like the guards killed Duncan, while he actually killed Duncan himself |
Macbeth — Act 2 quotes
September 2, 2019